Ranchers lose cattle, look to rebuild

A Picture of Puckett's cattle

Out of about 1,900 cattle, Worth Puckett estimates he had to kill 50 because their injuries were too serious to move them. Puckett is the ranch manager for Calamity Creek Ranch, a Fort Davis ranch owned by Barry Beal of Midland. When the fire started tearing through the ranch, Puckett said he was on the front lines Saturday trying to put it out with a motor grader. But when he realized it wasn’t going to help, he moved on from the ranch and began to help people whose homes were on fire. His brother, Matt Puckett, said he came in from Houston on Sunday when he heard about the fires. “It’s a war zone,” Matt Puckett said. “It’s really sad.” Worth Puckett said the cattle he was rounding up were seriously burned and injured, and the only way they could be moved is by herding them to water, giving them some of the donated bales of hay and letting them rest for a few days. Not only were the cattle weak, he said, their hooves were melted, making it difficult for them to walk. Worth Puckett said part of his job now will entail rebuilding fences and fixing a water line that melted, but the cattle cannot live on the land without food. “We’re going to ship the cattle because we don’t have the grass to make it,” he said...more